名人轶事25 Movie Pioneers

By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: November 21, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we

tell about three people who helped make Hollywood the center of the movie

industry.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

When you hear the name Hollywood, you probably think of excitement, lights,

cameras and movie stars. Famous actors are not the only important people in

the entertainment business. Directors and producers are important, too.

Today, Hollywood is full of producers and directors. However, very few are as

famous and successful as Hollywood's first motion picture businessmen, Cecil

B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis Mayer.

((("There's No Business Like Show Business", CDP-8244)))

VOICE TWO:

Cecil B. Demille

Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in Eighteen-Eighty-

One. Both his parents were writers of plays. His father died when he was

twelve years old. His mother kept the family together by establishing a

theater company. Cecil joined the company as an actor. He continued working

in his mother's theater company as an actor and a manager until Nineteen-

Thirteen. That year, he joined Jesse L. Lasky and Samuel Goldfish to form the

Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Goldfish later changed his name to

Samuel Goldwyn.

VOICE ONE:

The three men started making motion pictures immediately. They loved working

in the movie business. They were deeply interested in its creative and

financial possibilities. DeMille, Lasky and Goldfish began working on a movie

version of the popular American western play, "Squaw Man." DeMille urged that

the movie be made in the real American West. He chose Flagstaff, Arizona.

DeMille and the company traveled to Flagstaff by train. When they arrived,

DeMille thought the area looked too modern. They got back on the train and

keep going until they reached the end of the line. They were in a quiet

little town in southern California. The town was called Hollywood. DeMille

decided this was the perfect place to film the movie.

"Squaw Man" was one of the first full-length movies produced in Hollywood. It

was released in Nineteen-Thirteen and was an immediate success. DeMille is

considered the man who helped Hollywood become the center of the motion

picture business. He quickly became a creative force in the new movie

industry. His success continued with "Brewster's Millions," "The Call of the

North" and "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine."

VOICE TWO:

Cecil B. DeMille was among the very few filmmakers in Hollywood whose name

appeared above the title of his movie. His name was more important to movie-

goers than the names of the stars in the movie. DeMille's movies were known

to be big productions. He combined a lot of action, realistic storytelling

and hundreds of actors to make some of Hollywood's best movies. He made many

kinds of movies including westerns, comedies, romances and ones dealing with

moral issues

DeMille gained a great deal of fame with the kind of movie known as an epic.

An epic tells a story of events that are important in history. DeMille's epic

movies were based on the settling of the American West, Roman history or

stories from the Bible. His first version of the historic film "The Ten

Commandments" was a huge success among silent films in Nineteen-Twenty-Three.

In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he released a new version of "The Ten Commandments" to

include sound. It is broadcast still on American television during the

Christian observance of Easter.

VOICE ONE:

Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed seventy movies. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine

he received a special Academy Award for "thirty-seven years of brilliant

showmanship." He died of heart failure in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine.

One of DeMille's last films was "The Greatest Show on Earth." It won the

Academy Award for best picture in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. It was about people who

performed in the circus. Some people say it was a fitting subject because

Cecil B. DeMille often was called the greatest showman in Hollywood.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In Eighteen-Ninety-Five, a thirteen-year-old boy from Warsaw, Poland found

his way to the United States. Samuel Goldfish was alone. He had no money. He

found work as a glove maker. He continued working in the glove-making

industry until he was almost thirty years old.

VOICE TWO(cont):

Samuel Goldwyn